His Lady,Grace
by JubeeDancer
Summary: *Working title* Takes place in the middle of HP7.  Dumbledore has kept her secret for 19 years but it is time for her to face her past and her future to help the Boy Who Lived defeat the Dark Lord.
1. Chapter 1

AN: As always I have to give credit to Ms. Rowling for all of her brilliance and apologize for borrowing her amazing characters and rich world for my own frivolous purposes. Also I would just like to warn my readers of a few changes to the story I intend to make. Firstly, to make things not messy, there was never a romance with Ginny and Harry. Secondly, my story will for the most part start in the middle of book seven and will drastically change things while hopefully still make sense.

Hope you enjoy!

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><p>The morning of Albus Dumbledore's funeral, Harry Potter found himself unable to sleep. Whether it was grief or anxiety he did not know but he did know that while it was three in the morning and he should be sleeping, he couldn't. Harry slipped out of bed, crept out of the dormitory ignoring cranky comments from the Fat Lady and pulled on his invisibility cloak. He had walked the halls of Hogwarts alone, invisible, at night many times during his stay at Hogwarts but this time felt very different. He knew it would be his last and he was caught in feelings of nostalgia and sorrow.<p>

When he arrived at the stone gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office, he realized he didn't have a clue how he would get in. He removed his cloak and said "Er, hello." The gargoyle allowed him entrance with a sad, knowing look on his face. Harry ascended the spiral staircase and hesitated at the wooden door, unsure what he wanted to find. The office had been draped in black cloth yet everything else remained the same as it had been the night they had gone on their adventure. Harry stood in the entranceway for a few minutes, unsure what to do or why he was even there. He slowly crept toward the desk he had sat at so many times before, feeling like an intruder. He noticed, as he'd guessed, the phoenix was no where to be found. He also noticed with a ping of sadness, the portrait of Dumbledore was not in his frame. Harry had thought it might have been nice to speak to him, although he was not too sure exactly how much of Dumbledore would be in his animated portrait. Harry dragged his hand across the desk and was about to sit in the chair opposite, where he would have sat on his many meetings with Dumbledore, when a letter sitting on Dumbledore's desk caught his attention. The envelope had a muggle stamp and had been processed through the postal system. The return address read:

_Grace Jones_

_31-30 30 Street_

_Astoria, NY 11102_

Harry stared for a long time at the envelope wondering how it had come to Dumbledore and this Grace person must be He flipped the envelope open to see it had already been opened but the envelope was empty. Harry began frantically searching through papers on Dumbledore's desk hoping to find the letter that must have been in the envelope. He couldn't find the letter this Ms. Jones had written but he found a the beginnings of Dumbledore's response to this woman:

_My dearest Gracie,_

_I am so glad to hear from you. I must ask your forgiveness once again for not coming to see you like I usually do. You must be sick of me telling you this but work has kept me busy these past few months. I am delighted to hear that you are well and adjusting to life on your own although I wish there was more I could do to ease your pain and frustration with your chosen career path and your time of transition. Know that we have all gone through a bit of what you are going through and that you will find your way. Once again, I must postpone the discussion I promised you earlier. I have so many things that need to be said yet they are the kinds of things that must be explained in person. I promise, my sweet girl, all will be illuminated very soon. I just hope that when you hear what I must tell you, you can forgive me for -_

The letter ends there. Harry stared at the familiar curly handwriting of his headmaster and couldn't help but wonder who this Grace person was and what was so important that he tell her in person. Did she know that Dumbledore was no longer with us? A woman living in the muggle world in a country across the sea, would she know that Dumbledore was dead, killed by someone he trusted? Harry felt a wave of fresh grief. He was beginning to understand how little he knew of his mentor. Was this Grace woman a distant relative or a woman whom Dumbledore had a romance? Harry had a difficult time imagining the old wizard having a relationship with a woman however he was only human. Could this person, though she does not have his name, be his daughter? Is it possible that Albus Dumbledore had a muggle daughter living in a different country?

As many questions about this girl that came to Harry, he still did not feel his usual curiosity. Something compelled him to take the empty envelope and the half finished response. Harry felt somewhere, for reasons he could not explain, that this girl might be important to him on his mission. As the light of the sun began to peek through the heavy black curtains, Harry made his way reluctantly out of the office and back to his dormitory where the rest of his classmates were slowly waking up and making sure they were completely packed. Harry decided he would wait until the train home to share with Ron and Hermione his findings in the headmaster's office. It was time to pay his last respects to the man who had given him so much knowledge, advice and wisdom.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Just a quick clarification on timing. I'm skipping ahead a bit, so just say that everything that happened in the Deathly Hallows has happened for the most part (minus the Harry/Ginny romance) until where we find our heroes in the story okay. Lovely thanks!

Harry closed his eyes, trying to tune out the sound of Ron fiddling with the radio and Hermione flipping pages of her book. It had been two weeks since Ron had returned and they had destroyed the first Horcrux and they were without a plan or a direction to move in. Harry was even getting nervous as he hadn't been let into Voldemort's mind since then either. He was beginning to feel stir-crazy.

"Hermione." Harry started trying very hard to sound authoritative and confident. "I want to go to New York."

Ron stopped fiddling with the radio. He had missed the majority of discussions regarding this particular feeling from Harry as he had been gone when Harry had started feeling adamant that they find this Grace person. Hemione sighed again.

"Harry, I really think you need to forget about this girl. I don't see anyway that she could be connected to the task at hand."

"Is this the letter girl?" Ron asked, hopping off his bunk to join the other two at the table inside their tent.

"Harry seems to think she could help us but I fully disagree. I mean first of all she's a muggle. She sent Dumbledore a letter through the regular post. And secondly, …"

"I just have this feeling like she's a part of this all. Maybe she's an undercover witch which is why she's using muggle post." Harry said. This wasn't a new theory he had and Hermione had shot down this theory many times.

"They would have had a more discreet way to communicate if that was the case I'm sure of it." Hermione said exasperatedly.

"Hermione I can't explain why but I just have this really strong feeling that this girl could be important." Harry said.

"Harry, we've got to focus on the Horcruxes. I know we've figured out how to kill them and we've successfully gotten rid of the locket but we've still got two that we don't even know what they could be and then we're no closer to finding a way to destroy the snake." Hermione responded.

"She's right. We need to keep our priorities in line Harry. I know you want to know more about Dumbledore and I get it but we need to be figuring out these Horcruxes. Unless you think Dumbledore left a Horcrux with her then it doesn't matter." Ron jumped in.

"God," Harry yelled, "would you stop agreeing with her just to make her stop being mad at you! Think for yourself for a change!" Harry stormed out of the tent, angry that his friends wouldn't agree with him. He sat down at a neighboring tree and pulled out the envelope with this girl's address and half-written letter inside. He stared at the words but he already had them memorized. What could Dumbledore have wanted to explain to her? And why was Harry so sure that this woman, whoever she was, was a part of this? He couldn't put his finger on it but he also just wanted to do something. Harry sat there staring at the paper for a while, trying to reach out to Voldemort's mind. After a while he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Let's just go, for a few days and see what we can about this girl. If nothing else, it will get us out of danger for a few days. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will certainly not expect us to leave the country let alone the continent." Harry said reentering the tent.

"I suppose it can't hurt." Ron replied rather sheepishly looking at Hermione to gauge her response.

"It will be tricky." Hermione began. "We'll need to be careful what we say to her until we know for sure that she knows about magic. I'd say we give it no longer than a week." Harry smiled. "We can't let our guard down too much though." Hermione cautioned. "We have no idea what is going on in the wizarding community in America. You-Know-Who is powerful and who is to say that he doesn't have a following there."

The three agreed they would leave at dawn. The air in the tent that night was one of great anticipation and anxiety. Harry had never been outside of England and was excited and nervous to see what could be out there for him.

At the first sign of light, Harry, Ron and Hermione packed up their tent. Once Hermione was sure that any sign of their having been there was gone and all protective enchantments had been removed, the tree grabbed hands and twisted on the spot. Each thought as clearly as they could of the address _31-30 30__th__ St Astoria New York_ although none of them had any idea what to expect of this place.

They landed on the top of three steps that led to a medium tall apartment building. They looked left and right to see if there was anyone around to notice them. The coast was clear.

"Now what?" Ron asked. It was early but there were still plenty of people walking around.

"I think we should find a place to set up camp first." Hermione said.

"No, let's go inside and find this apartment number." Harry said.

"And what are you gonna do, knock on the door and say 'Hi Grace, my name is Harry. How did you know Dumbledore?'" Ron asked. Harry had to agree that sounded rather foolish and would be sure to scare away anyone.

"Camping spot it is." Harry said and the three of them began to walk down the street. On their left was a school and on the right a grocery store.

"At least we'll have food!" Ron exclaimed.

"Do you ever stop thinking about food!" Hermione practically yelled and Ron just shrugged. Harry's scar began to sting a bit and he stopped walking abruptly. Just as he was reaching toward his scar and Ron and Hermione turned back to see what happened to Harry, something hit Harry from behind and he stumbled. A hand grabbed his arm to keep him from falling on his face.

"Sorry! Oh I'm sorry." Said a sweet sounding voice. The sound, as silly as Harry found this description, filled him with pure joy and caring. "You just…stopped so suddenly I couldn't…"

"'Sokay." Harry said, meeting the piercing green eyes of the girl with the kind voice. The girl had dark red hair and her eyes were kind and friendly but also showed a deeply ingrained sorrow. Harry was sure it she had known great tragedy.

"Are you sure you're okay? No injuries." She smiled.

"No I'm fine." He replied.

"Okay." She started jogging again but called over her shoulder. "Have a good day." Harry stood for a second frozen, watching as she jogged around the corner.

"Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry snapped out of it and ran to catch up with his friends.


End file.
